Hawaii-Texas rewind
Huge win for Hawaii, 25-19, 19-25, 27-25, 25-16.
first some comments from Shoji. Said it’s obviously early in the season but it was an amazing win for the program, coming against the defending champions who had almost everyone back from last year. Said they got lost a little in Set 2, went away from the game plan and broke down in some key fundamentals. But they regrouped in Set 3. Said they should have won that one probably a little easier (I’m sorry but they could have easily been down 1-2 before that great rally in Set 3)
Asked him how key it was that Hartong didn’t let that net call bother her in what could have been a key play. He said she’s a tough player, she gets blocked but he never expects her to get flustered.
“We probably shocked a lot of people tonight,” he said.
shocked me ! … a thoroughly enjoyable win. especially since so few expected hawaii could pull off the upset. win or lose the rest of the way, i’m gonna enjoy watching this year’s version of wahine volleyball. 🙂
Cindy, is Nikki Taylor actually taller then Jade Vorster? Watching replay, and when they introduced both players, Nikki seems at least 2 inches taller then Jade, or was it just the camera angle.
For the night, UH hit .336. .364 in Set 4. Texas hit .262, .143 in Set 4
Taylor 10-1-18, Vorster 7-0-14, Manu-Olevao 8-2-25, Uiato 2-0-4, Hartong 18-8-42, Adolpho 11-3-19, Long 0-0-2. Middles played very well, passing broke down a bit in Set 2 but Uiato (50 assists) was able to use all her weapons, set a very smart game. Think Texas surprised by the quick armswings of the middles
UH with 4 aces (2 by Uiato, 1 from Hartong and Kawamura), 10 SEs. 10 blocks, 7 BA by Adolpho, 6 BA by Taylor 1 solo, 2 BA from Vorster, 2 BA by Uiato and Hartong. 47 digs, 17 by Longo, Manu-Olevao with 8, Hartong 7, Taylor 4, Lelepali and Uiato 3, 1 by Vorster, Mendoza and Kawamura. UH used 13 of 16 available players (only Passi officially redshirting but Kyra Goodman expected to).
for Texas, which used 9 of 15 on the roster, Bell 7-2-19, Victoria 10-3-23, McCage 3-2-6, Eckerman 13-7-34, setter Allison 3-0-5 (45 assists), Webster 19-7-43.
Key was the adjustment on Webster. 5-0-6 in Set 1, 10-0-16 in Set 2, 7-6-18 in Set 3, 2-19 in Set 4.
3 aces, 13 SEs. 2 aces by Neal with 12 digs, 1 ce by Bell. UH outblocks Texas 10-8. 4 BA by Bell, 3 BA by Victoria, 1 solo and 3 BA by McCage, 4 B by Allison.
Really shocked!! I actually thought it would go 5 with UT squeaking out the win. Gotta say though thoroughly happy and thrilled they did it in 3. Definitely sent a message to other teams in the nation tonight.
Awesome job Wahine!
2 camera angle. Vorster is 6-4, Taylor 6-3
Sorry 3-1 I meant.
Having Nikki and Vorster hang out on the right I think disrupted UT attack. Kept their hitters frustrated at times. Adolpho did awesome in the middle. Uiato set a beautiful match. This was truly and great match tonight. One of the best I`ve seen.
Fantastic win tonight. The Wahine back row play needs to steady out but give them credit for toughing it out. Kalei was impressive and Nikki was a revelation.
The Wahines played like they are on a mission this year. Not to leave anything in the NCAA Tournament Committees hands, after what happened the last few years.
If the Wahines play well this whole regular season they could possible end up being Ranked #1, at the end of the regular season. The reason I say this, there are a lot of PAC-12, and B1G teams ahead of them, but come conference time they will beat up on each other. The Wahines, can dictate and also, hold their destiny in the palm of their hands. Just play well, NO let down, and WIN BABY, WIN!!!!
4. thought it would go 5 as well. wasn’t sure who would win tho.
impressed by UH at the end of Set 3. Wahine where in control at 16-11. Texas ties it a 18 and takes the lead at 19-18. UH tickes at 19 then Texas leads most of the way down the struck, serving for the set at 24-22. UH holds off two set points (Webster hits wide then blocked by Vorster and Taylor) to tie at 24
Texas again serves for the set at 25-24. kill by Wester.
Manu-Olevao ties at 25, Webster blocked again, this time Taylor and Adolpho. then Hartong ends it.
Think that took the wind out of Texas. Texas was up 9-7 on that net call on Hartong. Wahine come back to tie at 10. tied at 11 and 12. Taylor came up big with a kill and a block. Hill by Hartong gives the lead for good at 15-12. UH pulled away to 18-13. never got closer than 20-15. Wahine finish it out 5-1 with Kawamura serving tough at the end, acing former HBA teammate Palmer in the process. Two uncharacteristic hitting errors by the All-American Eckerman, picked as the Preseason Player of the Year in the Big 12. Webster also an All-American last season
9. week 1 of a very long season. Still this is a big win that establishes a foothold in the RPI
This could be the year, they finally go to Seattle, and WIN.
Heading off the Kailua. Tomorrow will be a late night.
may catch up on the T25 scores … or not
DF, one favor. Can you call them Wahine, without the S? they haven’t used the S in decades.
At 12. It`s a looong season so calm down and catch a breath. A lot of things can happen before then. One game at a time.
Ok. Thinking we will probably see Tuaniga and Kastl play some tomorrow night against UTEP.
15. Ok. Just getting a little excited again, watching the replay, sorry.
16. probably will. And with Manu-Olevao sitting out Sunday, they need to get Kastl on the court to get in some real-time experience.
OMG! I (and I know there were others) may have thought, “My gooddness Dave, what? On opening night?”. But Dave made a believer out of us. He is truly a master of the game. I would have been happy and content with winning two sets from TX, but how awsome it was that they took it in four.
Taylor did a good job, and both Aldolpho and Olevao was impressive tonight. Thought Jade was little quiet, but I’m sure she’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the season. I’m glad Hartong and Mita is on our side. What great players of the game they both are. Looking forward to the year!
Thanks for the blog Cindy. Go Bows!
At 16. no problem I feel the same way. Just gotta stayed focused and not get ahead of ourselves. Relax sit back and have another cold one before moi moi. LOL!
Great win for UH! The Wahine real team volleyball…and Nikki Taylor had an awesome debut…I like her a lot…She reminds me of the big outside hitters that Illinois had when they reached the championship match a few years ago…
I guess Vorster was quiet. hit .500 7-0-10.
not as many attempts on Adolpho 11-3-19
but unless they flop the middles in the lineup, Vorster won’t be the one getting set more because Adlopho lines up next to Uiato. Uiato already front row, can run the quick to Adolpho out of the first set play. Vorster is set more out of transition.
Vorster touched a lot of balls on that ‘soft block’ You might have noticed Adolpho more because of the matchup with her and Taylor together as a blocking pair.
Love the improvement of Kalei, Tai and Mita.
Emily didn’t hit her usual percentage but she faced huge blockers all match. Aly Longo was huge with rocket digs and superb serving, when she’s back there to serve UH scored 2-3 points every single time.
The improvement in Tai’s defense and passing is great, I think playing beach volleyball really helped her. I think UH should have Nikki play beach volleyball as well so she can improve like Tai did.
Team win but the Seniors and role players all stepped up big time. Emily will be seeing stacked defenses and front lines, but as she did last night she might be blocked, but will always come back and given enough swings will find the floor. She gave me a bit of a scare when she ‘lost’ her service edge in game two but the locker room and team play in game three really propelled them into game 4. I was going in willing to settle for a hard fought five setter with a long drive home. Instead got one for the ages. Nothing but praise for Wahine and Pride for team that carries our banner into NCAA play hopefully deep and long this year. Coach Dave has once again shown why he has won so many games in years past by schooling and shocking everyone from game 1. No let down girls, Ku Li’a i ka Nu’u (Strive for the highest!) Go Wahine!
Looks like I owe someone a $1000.00
Let’s not forget the asst coaches also. Robyn and Scott coached their butts off from the sidelines. Great job Dave, Scott & Robyn. Also, to the Wahine–thank you for a great game. And don’t forget about the 7th player–the fans!
25. cool LC. The program can use it.
DF, you asked when was the last time a UH RS had 10 kills. Two years ago, Chanteal Satele had eight matches with 10 or more kills. A year before that, she had 13 double-digit kill matches. Maybe Kastl had double digit kills on the right at some point last year. I know Goodman had nine kills in one match. Also to point out, Taylor may have had 10 kills, but Olevao only eight.
23. can’t blame Hartong for her hitting percentage. if you watched the match, she took so many trouble sets, balls had no real chance of going over the net. or the ball came back to her so quickly that she didn’t have time to get her feet planted. Still took a hard swing at it.
Cindy, you certainly weren’t kidding when you said Adolpho was moving better and faster. Such a huge difference from her slow-motion step outs last year! Since you’ve also described Tuaniga in the same manner, I can’t wait to see her in action! A little surprised that Lelepali had a bigger role than Kawamura, since the latter was listed No. 2 on the depth chart.
28. Hot, I meant both kills and blocks. When was the last time a RS had that many kills, along with that many blocks, in a single match?
Cindy, loved that bump set that Ali Longo made to Emily Hartong, to end set 3. Texas was not prepared for that set, caught them totally by surprise. You could tell by the looks on their faces, like what was that.
DF, Chanteal Satele had 12 kills and six blocks in the 2011 NCAA Tournament vs. USC. In the opener against San Diego in 2010, she had 14 kills and 12 blocks.
Thank you, Hot, did not know if that was ever done before, by a RS player.
I thought that this video was put together VERY nicely, no?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=B7wszrMKJ8E